Try Something New!

My friend Lisa and I have started a joint-blog called Try Something New!

http://community.livejournal.com/trysomething/

This is basically what the blog is about (and how the idea for it came about):

Life is short and then you die. But before you get to that, you should really live life to the fullest! (Okay, yes, that’s a cliche.. but you know, cliche’s are cliches for a reason!) Try Something New, is here so that two people (Linda and Lisa) can do and document things they’ve never done before, and hopefully through this doing and public documentation, inspire others to do as well! It started off in a conversation where the two of us had said we’d always wanted to try (something/anything/you fill in the blank), but we had never done it before. Why? Because we were too scared? Because we never had the opportunity to do it? Because we just didn’t have that extra little push of encouragement that we needed? Maybe one of those reasons or maybe all of them. That’s where the cliche comes in! Life is too short to hold back and not experience everything that can be experienced. It doesn’t have to be huge. We’re not going to hop on a plane and climb a mountain anytime soon, no. Let’s be realistic about this, haha. Even the littlest, ‘new’ thing, will make it onto this blog because the small gestures are just as important as the big ones. Maybe we’ll take a new route to that same place we go to every Tuesday. Or maybe we’ll go out with our hair done in a way we’ve always wanted to have it done, but never did before. Either way, we’ll be trying something new. Taking a little risk in life, and having fun while doing so. We hope that our posts about the new things we try will encourage others to do the same.

Let’s start a risk-taking, trying-something, revolution! ♥

So there you go! Another addition to my website/blog empire, LOL as if I don’t have enough. But I am really excited for this one because I don’t usually do joint things with anyone and I think what this particular blog represents and how it will encourage and inspire myself and my friend (and maybe you!) makes it pretty special! Plus it’s on Livejournal and the layout is absolutely ADORABLE in my opinion. Hehe. Please visit!

I just made the first trying-something-new post: HERE!

You don’t have to have a Livejournal account to comment on that blog!

(Also, if you’re wondering, the Try Something New blog isn’t going to be replacing this one!)

More post soon.

Linda

Television Broadcasting & entertainment journalism!

Back in April, pretty much immediately post-failing at the getting The Best Job In The World (ha ha), I had been truly bitten by the traveling bug and had decided to take courses to get me certified to teach English overseas so I could take a year off from my journalism/media career path and just long-term travel. It made a lot of sense at the time. My two-year Journalism diploma program had just been completed and the whole TBJITW experience had lightened my parents up at the thought of me traveling far away from them.

Since my senior year of high school, my intentions had always been to complete a two-year Journalism diploma program at Grant MacEwan, followed by a two-year Television Broadcasting diploma program at Nait (The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology). Before getting involved with TBJITW this past year, I had still intended to carry through with this plan (I had even already applied for Nait just before applying for TBJITW).

Around June I was informed of my acceptance into the Television Broadcasting program but at that time I had also already completed a five-day foundation TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) course and now had specialization courses to complete online to get my complete teaching English certification. So at this point I was seriously wondering what I should do.

And as ridiculous as it sounds, So You Think You Can Dance made me make the decision I’m proceeding with now. Seriously. If you follow my blog posts, then you’ll know that I blogged my thoughts about Season 5 this summer and even though I wasn’t hardcore about it, I thoroughly enjoyed writing about the show and the dancers and my take on things. And that, along with doing some of the legitimate journalist/blogger interviews with actual legitimate So You Think You Can Dance dancers and choreographers this summer, reminded me how much I want to do entertainment reporting, broadcasting and writing and television blogging and all that stuff in that genre, for a living.

That’s what I’ve always been most interested in. That’s what I’ve always wanted to end up doing and just the little taste of it the last few months just by doing some personal blogs and getting the opportunity to do a few my-favourite-television-show-related interviews, kind of rekindled that flame inside of me. That’s what I’m passionate about..

At the same time, I found that there were issues with my top three country choices that I had wanted to teach at: South Korea, Vietnam, and Japan, that made me feel like maybe it wasn’t the best time to go and do this. So I decided, since the rest of my Teaching English certification is all dependent on completing courses online, and there really isn’t any deadline coming up fast for that (because I had selected the Advanced TESOL Diploma Program, and therefore got the option for five specialization courses, which doesn’t have to actually be completed until two years from now), I would just really take my time in completing the courses online in the next two years, while getting my Television Broadcasting credentials done as well!

And I’ll just try and feed the traveling bug by doing small trips here and there for now…

Also, with this additional two years, I have more opportunities to try and get some internships that will help steer me in the right entertainment direction. Try for an entertainment internship with CTV… try for MuchMusic or MTV Canada or ETalk or maybe even hopefully get some internships in the entertainment industry in America. Who knows.

Anyway, school starts on September 8th and I’ll also be doing a short internship with Metro Edmonton Aug. 31, Sept. 1, 2, and 3 to help get me back into the journalism swing of things! I’ll be sure to blog about that week, as well as about my television broadcasting experiences and whatever else I end up doing on the side this year.

But yes, I feel this update post is long overdue. So I hope that answers your ‘What’s Linda doing now… she hasn’t mentioned anything in a long time!’ question, if you were wondering, ha!

Linda

Brief pause.

May 28 2009.

I’m taking Teaching English certification classes for the next few days along with work during the day so I’m missing both So You Think You Can Dance audition episodes this week and probably won’t get to watching them until early next week. There probably won’t be a blog about those episodes or any other blog post about anything in general for the next week or so!

Linda

The 34th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon… and how little I know about Vietnam history.

April 30 2009.

                              The Real Vietnamese Flag...

Today is the 34th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon. On April 30th 1975, 34 years ago, the city of Saigon in South Vietnam was overtaken by the North Vietnamese communists and renamed Ho Chi Minh City, after a North Vietnamese (communist) leader. Each year since then on this day, the communists have celebrated the day in honour and memory of their success, while those who had fled the country to Canada (like my parents), or America (like my aunt, uncle and cousins), or other places around the globe (I hear there are a lot of Vietnamese people in Australia), mourn the loss of their home and the loss of democracy, and hope that eventually change will come for Vietnam.

I’ll be turning 20 in a few months. In the past 20 years, I have been unaware of the significance of this day. I’m quite positive my parents have told me about it at some point throughout the years, but it probably went in one ear and out the other, much like a lot of the stories they’ve told me about their experiences in Vietnam, fleeing Vietnam and starting over in Canada. This year my father mentioned the date, just once, over lunch, and as usual it kind of went in one ear and out the other. I nodded and murmured some form of acknowledgement and went on with eating or talking about whatever I happened to be talking about that day. Then for some reason, a few days later, out of the blue, I remembered that brief conversation we had had, with him saying something about April 30th being the day that we mourn the loss of our country, and I decided to google it.

And it was through Google that I learned about the Fall of Saigon. Which, as it happens, is a famous date in history, and one that on one news website, was part of a list of “Events that Changed the World.” Pretty monumental I’d say.

It’s not my parent’s fault that I didn’t know about this until now. I take full responsibility for the fact that I’ve just been uninterested and unquestioning in the history of my heritage and well ultimately, my parent’s lives before they came to Canada. I mean, they’ve spent years giving me anecdotes about Vietnam and getting out because they didn’t want to live under communist rule, how before the war, New Years over there was the most festive and happy times, how they’d sell things at the marketplace and go for Vietnamese dessert with their friends, how they went on a boat to refugee camps before coming to Canada, and all kinds of little bits of information here and there. I just didn’t really pay attention all that much to what they said.

Maybe my lack of knowledge of Vietnam and its history also stems from the fact that I still haven’t been there. In the past 20 years I haven’t yet gone back to Vietnam. This is ultimately because my dad refuses to return while its still under communist rule. He feels very passionately about that. He said he’d go back when Vietnam is democratic again… I don’t know how realistic that ‘vow’ is. I don’t know if Vietnam will ever be democratic again… but my dad’s feelings about the matter is really why my family and I haven’t gone back yet. And to be honest I never really cared to go back that much anyway. I’m happy I’m in Canada. I’m glad my parents hadn’t stuck around for a Communist-ruled Vietnam and I’m extremely grateful that I was born and raised here.

But that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t know about my family’s history and my heritage. And before I started writing this blog post, I didn’t realize just how little I know about Vietnam history and I didn’t realize just how little an effort I had made in the past to know about it.

This changes now of course.

I really, really am going to make an active effort to learn about the history of my motherland starting now.

I had come up with this idea a few years back… that I’d sort of “interview” my parents, and record them talking about all of their experiences and everything they could remember about living and leaving Vietnam, and then I’d put it all together and write a book about it. I mean I was probably in Grade 12 when I had said that and I probably had no intention of writing a book anytime SOON. And to this day I still haven’t ACTUALLY “interviewed” them about it at all. But this idea has been resurfacing a lot lately, and I think I will start the interviewing process very soon. And obviously it will help me in learning more about my country and my culture, as well as bonding with my parents. (Which, I do do a lot of anyways, just never really bond-talking about Vietnam).

Anyway, so that’s me admitting that I’ve wasted far too many years not trying to learn about where my parents come from and the history of my people, not asking for more details when my parents would mention something about life in Vietnam, and that I want to start learning about it now.

And just as a side note, I would like to go and visit Vietnam one day.

Here’s some External Links for reading/learning about the Fall of Saigon:

• New York Times Coverage about the Fall of Saigon
• Wikipedia Entry for the Fall of Saigon
• Interactive Guardian.co.uk Fall of Saigon Timeline

Linda

I’m way too poor to want what I want, but I do! I do want these!

April 22 2009.

Hello all As I wrote in my last post, I’m spending the next few months trying to save up money to pay for a bunch of things I want/need.

Here are 3 gadgets on that list that will add to my video blogging and photography arsenal, in more detail:

1. Flip MinoHD (customized for my pink-loving dorkiness )

Flip MinoHD: The World's Smallest HD Camcorder (CUSTOMIZED!)

What: The world’s smallest HD camcorder
Some Specs: Weighs only 3.3 ounces, convenient flip-out USB arm plugs directly into your computer, records high-quality H.264 videos that work with iTunes, iMovie, and iPhoto, silent mode for recording in sensitive situations, more specs @ official website.
Why I want this: I’ve wanted the Flip Video before the “MinoHD” version was even developed. Now this HD one, well… It’s portable. It’s convenient. It’s high quality. It’s customizable and it’s therefore adorable. And it uploads quick and easy to a computer. It’s perfect for video blogging, capturing random but awesome shots, and amateur film making, and this is why I want it!
Cost: $229.99 USD.
I say USD because the customizable option is only available for ordering online and shipping to the United States. Therefore I plan on getting it shipped to my cousin and having him bringing it over to me when he comes to Edmonton for my brother’s wedding in July!
Official Website: www.theflip.com/store/MinoHD

2. Canon Speedlite 430EX II Flash

Canon Speedlite 430EX II Flash

What: A flash to attach to my Canon EOS Rebel XTi
Some Specs: Superior build quality, including a metal foot for added strength, virtually silent flash recycle, Full swivel, 180° in either direction, zoom flash head covers range of 24-105mm; maximum guide number 141 ft./43m at ISO 100, more specs @ official website.
Why I want this: I need a flash. The built-in flash on my Canon XTi is really bad and does ridiculous crazy blippy flash things during its recycle time. My friend and I have determined that we think all XTi built-in flashes do that because she has the Canon XSi which is one-up from the XTi and her built-in flash is fine and does not do weird blippy things. Anyway, I basically fear taking photographs in darkly or dimly lit areas with my DSLR because I don’t use flash (because of said blippy thingy) and I’d like to. Therefore, I need a flash! And this one will be fairly cheap!
Cost: Regular (new) cost is $369 but I’m buying a used version from my photojournalist teacher for $225!
Official Website: www.mcbaincamera.com

3. Canon EF 15mm F2.8 Fisheye Lens

Canon EF 15mm F2.8 Fisheye Lens

What: A fisheye lens for my Canon EOS Rebel XTi
Some Specs: 180° Diagonal Angle of View, Rear Gel Holder (accepts up to 3 pre-cut gel filters), short minimum focusing distance of 8 in. (20 cm) gives new meaning to close-up shots, more specs @ official website.
Why I want this: Ever since I saw super wide-angle pictures posted by James Hill (a Best Job in the World candidate), I have fallen in love with the fisheye lens. I am so attracted to the effect that the fisheye lens has on images. Visually fantastic. Examples: 1 | 2 | 3 (All credit: James Hill) I knew that he had been using a fisheye lens, but I didn’t know the exact lens name and well, to be honest I didn’t try too hard to search for it. But then a few days ago on Jame’s blog, he wrote a post about the equipment he’s been using ( here ) and since then I’ve added this very expensive fisheye lens to my list of things to save up for! I want it hopefully before my trip to Los Angeles at the end of July.
Cost: Regular (new) cost is $949 but if I buy it through my photojournalist teacher he’ll get a discount!
Official Website: www.mcbaincamera.com

So there you go! (:

It is a shame because I’m way too poor to want what I want, but I do… I really do want these and I think they’ll all be quite an asset for me in terms of my filming and photography interests!

Linda

Time to take my life and go.

April 18 2009.

Hey everyone!

Okay so I’ve finally got around to writing this… ‘what’s next?’ blog.

WARNING: It’s definitely long. lol

If you prefer skim-reading, you can just skip to the end of this post and I’ll have a to-the-point bulleted list of my plans in bold. If you want to know what I cover in this blog, this is what I cover:

• Los Angeles
• Internships? Working?
• Teaching English overseas & world travel
• What The Best Job in the World has done for me
• To sum up in a nutshell

If you want to read everything from top to bottom, read on!~

1. Los Angeles!

So immediately after finding out I wouldn’t be moving onto the next round of The Best Job in the World, I thought – Okay, must travel this summer!! The first place that came into my mind and I just knew that I had to go visit now that Australia was out of the picture? Los Angeles, California.

It kind of all came together rather nicely. My friend that I really wanted to go there with, didn’t want to go for as long as I did, but she said she could meet me down there for the last half of my trip and we could go to Las Vegas together too. Then my friend from Toronto told me that she had really wanted to go somewhere for the summer as well, and thought L.A. with me would be perfect! Along with that, for the first 4 days of my trip, I’ll be meeting up with some really great people that I’ve met online via the fansite I created for Mark Kanemura (a So You Think You Can Dance Season 4 finalist). So yeah, I’ll be with my friend from Toronto for the first portion of my L.A. trip in July, along with meeting and hanging out with “Markers“, then my Toronto friend will head back to Toronto on the same day that my friend from Edmonton comes down and we’ll head over to Las Vegas together! Perfecto!

I’ve got so much planned, so many SoCal areas to hit up and see, beaches, boulevards, boardwalks. I recently read the book “The Soloist” which is also coming out as a movie starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx next week, based on the real life experiences of an LA Times columnist Steve Lopez and a schizophrenic homeless musician, Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, and I absolutely want to see if I can find Nathaniel in downtown LA and hear his music!!!

Anyway, so to summarize that. I’ll be fulfilling my dream of visiting Los Angeles, my dream city, this July!!!! YAY!

2. Interships? Working? I need money to pay for my vacation!

Okay so also immediately after failing to make the next round of The Best Job in the World, I thought – okay, what am I doing in terms of my “career” this summer then? I have always been interested in television broadcasting and had intended on trying to get some kind of television station internship this summer or next, so I thought, well I could do that this summer before I go on my vacation then?

I already have a two-week internship lined up at the Edmonton Journal as part of my requirements to graduate my journalism program, which I’m stoked about. But everywhere you look there’s a hiring freeze, freelance budgets are being cut, and from what I had heard at least a month back, The Journal along with other media outlets weren’t trying too eagerly search for students to hire for paid summer internships in this gloomy recession and economy. Which is totally fair. Okay, but anyway I was interested in getting an internship (which also would have been unpaid, I’m sure, didn’t ask though) at CTV Edmonton. One reason why I’m particularly interested in CTV is because CTVglobemedia is basically, well a force across broadcasting in Canada. CTV owns Much Music, Star and E! Entertainment, MTV Canada, all of the major Canadian entertainment shows that I’m interested in working at. And I think it would have been (it still would be) valuable to be able to say I’ve worked at a CTV branch.

Needless to say, after what I thought was a really good interview (seriously, I thought it went very well!), I was told I’d be given a call after the Easter long weekend and alas, it is now Friday, Easter was several days ago, and there’s been no phone call or email. I did send a follow-up email about the internship yesterday… and yeah no response to that either, which I think means it’s safe to say I will not be working at CTV this summer. Which bums me out most definitely… and while I could try and get an internship at another TV station (Global? CityTV?), I think (again because I believe everything happens for a reason) that this was quite possibly a sign telling me “Linda!! You need to save up MONEY this summer!” which I would not have been able to do really, had I worked unpaid (though it’s always the question of what’s more important, gaining valuable career-related experience, or getting money. Hm).

Basically that leads me to this conclusion ~

I will be working evenings and weekends at my parent’s restaurant from May until I leave for my vacation in July, as a way to save up money for both my vacation and what I’m about to write about next…

3. Teaching English overseas / longterm travel!

Okay so this is a big one. I had been thinking a lot about life post-The Best Job in the World… like what I would be doing with my life, where I wanted to go, how I wanted to get there, etc., and I had come to this conclusion.

I’m basically done my journalism education. Once I complete my two-week internship by about the second week of May, I’ll be finished. Graduated. Ready to go out into the media and journalism industry and get a job and start my journalism career full-time. Back in high school when I was planning out my post-secondary route, I had planned it like this – 2 years of journalism at Grant Mac, 2 years of television broadcasting at NAIT. That way the two programs would kind of compliment eachother, and I’d have something of a 4 year education as if it were a journalism degree (even though for both it would have been journalism diploma + broadcasting diploma).

Like I’ve said numerous times in Best Job interviews, I’ve wanted to travel for a very long time. I want to go out and really see the world and experience what life has to offer, and see all I can see. About a year ago I had decided that once I finished up my schooling, a perfect way to explore the world, travel, while still gaining an income, would be to teach English overseas.

That idea came back to me this month, and I decided that I will not be going to NAIT for their broadcasting program after all. Instead, I’ll be taking some courses in the coming months to become certified in teaching English overseas. Come September (hopefully I’ll find a placement), I’ll spend 6 months to a year in first Korea, and then travel around the Asian countries once I’m there and hopefully really utilize the teaching English certification and go all over the place to stay, make a living, while exploring and seeing the world. I’ll start taking photography more seriously once I’m over there (traveling photos! foreign photos! always great subjects) and I’ll also freelance write to English publications, as well as blog and video blog about my experiences wherever I end up going.

So there it is.

4. What The Best Job In The World has done for me.

TBJITW experience has made me want to really get up and explore. Adventure. Take my life and go. I’ve been bitten by the traveling bug and now, more than ever, I don’t see myself staying in Edmonton for very long. Yes, it will always be my home, but right now I need to leave. The experience has made me really realize that, and it has made the notion of my traveling and leaving on my own, something my parents are accepting easier than they would have if I hadn’t taken part in TBJITW.

To sum up, once I get certified to teach English and get hired somewhere around the world (again, hoping it will start in Korea because I’ve been hearing great things about teaching in Korea), I plan on traveling, exploring, blogging, photographing everything I encounter, doing freelance writing, growing up really, and seeing where life takes me… before returning to the print and broadcast journalism industry here in North America. (I say North America because I have had aspirations to live and work in both Los Angeles and Toronto… and maybe after a year or two of being in a foreign country, I’ll head to one of those places to look for work instead?)

5. So, in a nutshell, this is what I need to do from now until September…

This is where I’ll be from now until September:

• May & June: Edmonton.
• July: Los Angeles and Las Vegas. (for sure).
• August: Toronto (maybe).
• September and onwards: Korea + The World (pending being hired, lol).

And here’s what I need (in a more-detailed bulleted list) to get done from now until September:

• Complete a two-week internship with the Edmonton Journal. (Thus graduating the journalism program at MacEwan and receiving my journalism diploma).
• Work evenings and weekends at my parent’s restaurant to save money to pay for my two-week vacation in Los Angeles and Las Vegas in July; pay for a Flip Mino HD camcorder; pay for an external flash for my Canon EOS Rebel XTI; and pay for my Global TESOL Teaching English overseas certification.
• Take and complete my Global TESOL Teaching English overseas certification courses.
• Research/look into teaching abroad for September. (I’m interested in Korea right now).
• Take more photos to expand my photography portfolio/increase my experience.
• Freelance write (and blog more extensively) to keep my writing experience fresh and current (and to help expand my portfolio).
• Figure out how to integrate WordPress into websites and create my own WordPress themes so that I can..
• Freelance web design / build websites and actually make some money off of it!

And there it is.

I mean, so many things can happen and different opportunities may pop up so that my route from now until September, or when I’m actually in a foreign country, you know? Who can really say where I’ll go from there? A year ago I certainly didn’t think I’d ever be participating in a global competition to try and get “the best job in the world” in Australia. And two years ago I thought that 2 years of extra education at NAIT was definitely in the cards for me. But things change. Plans change. And as I say, things happen for a reason.

I’ve got this outline of where I want my life to go now. Just like I had an outline for where I wanted my life to go two years ago. For that tentative path I came up with in my mind two years ago, I’ve for the most part stayed on it pretty closely.

If (when) I end up on the other side of the world, I don’t know what’s going to happen there. I don’t know who I’m going to meet or what opportunities will arise. I just know that I’m so excited just thinking about encountering everything that I will potentially encounter.

Basically now, at this time, my actions are revolving around these lyrics from the inspirational song I blogged about earlier this month: Brendan James – All I Can See!

Those who journey can easily understand,
the more they see the more they’ll learn,
the more that they will be.
So this I swear to you, and this I swear to me,
I’ll never rest till I’ve seen all I can see.
No, I’ll never rest till I’ve seen all i can see.

For now though, I’ve got some serious budgeting to do!!!!!

And I still need to study for my final exams for next week, lol.

Linda

Los Angeles. I am in love with a city I’ve yet to step foot in.

Hi guys! This post is just to tag along to the one I’m going to post after it…

I’ve wanted to go to Los Angeles for many, many years now.

A few months ago I had written a little list, like Top 10 cities I wanted to visit and why… anyways here is what I wrote for my reasons for wanting to visit (and/or live) in L.A. (including pictures I found on Flickr):

1. Los Angeles, California

I don’t even remember why or when I first wanted to go to Los Angeles but for as long as I can remember now, the past several years easily, this is where I’ve wanted to be. As Ryan Seacrest’s Top 40 radio show starts off by saying, “LIVE FROM THE ENTERTAINMENT CAPITAL OF THE WORLD”… this is where all of the entertainment news, celebrity gossip, premieres, award shows, this is where it all happens. I am drawn to this place. I want to visit. I want to live there. I want to work there. I don’t care if people say it’s overrated or it’s actually really dirty or the people aren’t nice. I’ve had it set in my mind that this place is the greatest place on Earth for years now and I think when I finally get there I’ll just be so overjoyed that I’m finally there that I’ll make sure I have the best experience ever. Everything happens in LA, everyone goes to, lives or has lived in LA, and by everyone I mean, everyone in the entertainment industry that I am so in love with and want to be a part of. It is beautiful. I think the people there are beautiful. I think I’ve just got this notion that I can’t get rid of that everything is just happier and more wondrous in L.A. Those shows like Laguna Beach and The Hills are probably even more responsible for encouraging my itch to get down there– showing clips of beauuuuitful scenary and just overal glamorous lifestyles in the area. I mean I guess not even just L.A. but the area around L.A., all of Southern California, CALIFORNIA! You know how people would spend a ton of money to go to Europe and backpack through or just vacation and live there for a little while completely just sucking in the culture and the atmosphere and that? Well I would love to just go to L.A. and do that. Before working or anything, because I think I’d be too consumed by work to fully appreciate and experience the city and the area to the fullest and I so want to just experience all the beaches and the sunsets and the sunrises and exploring the city and the downtown and the beautiful areas rich areas along with the maybe not so glitzy areas, the poorer areas, graffiti-ed areas. All of it. I am in love with a city I’ve yet to step foot in.

(The above was written in December 2008).

Anyway, now you all now a bit more about my burning desire and passion for L.A.

My next blog post will be about my upcoming plans for the summer + near future!

“I’ll never rest till I’ve seen all I can see!”

April 3 2009.

Hey everyone, I was really inspired to post this song/lyrics up today!

I first heard the song by Brendan James, back in August on So You Think You Can Dance (Lol!) It was played in Mark Kanemura’s goodbye video and it’s called “All I Can See.” It just randomly started playing on my iTunes today via the shuffle function, and I paused and thought, “HEY, this is perfect!!!”

Here’s the song:

Here are the lyrics:

I want to walk through this doorway
I want to open my mind
I want to pledge my allegiance to all I can find.
I want a car that will crash through the barriers
to a road no one knows.
I want to feel less control,
want to bend and I want to land far from home.

The revolution of the earth around the sun
is the perfect lesson of how it should be.
So if i cannot learn
to journey and return,
to never rest till I’ve seen all I can see…

I want to learn a completely new language,
one I don’t understand.
I want to help someone lost, someone helpless,
with the strength of my hand.
I want to come to the base of a statue built
before they counted the years,
and there i’ll fall with my face in my hands and cry
and feel their hope in my tears.

The revolution of the earth around the sun
is the perfect lesson of how it should be.
So if I cannot learn,
to journey and return,
to never rest till I’ve seen all I can see…

Train rides and pastures colliding…
colors and customs i’ve never seen…
I know I, yes I know I,
I know I will stumble
but time is precious my friend.

Those who journey can easily understand,
the more they see the more they’ll learn,
the more that they will be.
So this I swear to you, and this I swear to me,
I’ll never rest till I’ve seen all I can see.
No, I’ll never rest till I’ve seen all i can see.

I want to know where the stength of a person lies,
in their past or their future.
Is it in the way that they hurt or they love themselves
or is it all an illusion?
I want to crawl from this skin that i’m painted in…
Body, please let it give.
I want to find the creator of all good things
and ask what it means to live.

Here’s Mark’s elimination ( ) and goodbye video that the song was used in :

And to view the official video for it (embedding is turned off), CLICK HERE!

Opportunities, opportunities! I’ve tentatively planned out how I want my summer to go now that Oz is out of the picture and I must say it’s looking good! Half industry/career-related, half traveling and adding to that list of things, places, and experiences that I won’t “rest till I’ve seen all I can see” of!

Once I get things finalized I’ll post my summer plans.

Linda

I know, sad, right… lol

April 2 2009.

Waiting for the phone to ring..

Hello everyone!! So by now you probably know that I definitely did not make it to the next round for the Best Job in the World. I know, sad, right. LOL. Before I go into details, I just wanted to put up top here…

I want to thank everyone so, so, so, so, sooooo much for all of your support since I started this campaign!!!! Your tweets, your facebook messages, your emails — everything! I appreciate it so much. You just don’t know how much all of your supportive words has meant to me. I really want to thank everyone individually but there’s been so many supportive messages over the last 2 months that I would feel absolutely dreadful if I missed anyone by accident. I’ve thanked you all before and I’m thanking you again (and I’m going to thank everyone who messaged me again today), but honestly I could say thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, over and over and over and it wouldn’t be thanks enough. You’ve all moved me and inspired me and I say this so much but seriously, I am just SOOOOOOOO APPREICIATIVE!!!!!! Thank you!!!!! Thank you for believing in me. I’ll never forget all of you & this experience!

OKAY! So, moving onto what went down today… lol.

My friends, Denise, Jasmine, Margaret, and Alyssa, came over to be with me while we waited for the moment of truth. We were also joined by a cameraman for Global Edmonton. I was in an MSN Group Chat with about 10-12 of the Top 50 candidates during the wait as well.

Basically this is how it went down. The Top 15 moving onto the next round were going to be called with the happy news between 4PM-5PM Edmonton time. The rest of the Top 50 would also get emails and phone calls of rejection. By about 4:30PM no one in the MSN chat had gotten any phone calls and I was getting super anxious. I was clutching onto my phone like it was nobody’s business. Shortly after 4:30PM Hailey wrote that she had gotten the call. I think after that James got the call, Juweon got the call, and there were a few people writing that they were out. I then decided to check my email and there it was. The subject line read “News from Tourism Queensland” and the gmail preview showed the first line of the email to me before I even opened it:

“Dear Linda, Unfortunately I am writing to you with bad news. I am very sorry to advise you that…”

So there it was. The journey ends.

I won’t sugarcoat it, I was REALLY sad and REALLY disappointed. I had been SO sure that I would be moving onto next round and when they announced that they would be extending the Top 11 to a Top 16, I thought for sure that meant good news for Canadian applicants!!! They’d be able to pick more people from Canada! Is what I, and many others, thought. Sadly not.

After some group hugs, talking to Global, CTV (who came shortly after Global), some phone interviews with The Edmonton Sun, Metro, and CBC Radio, some phone calls to break the news to my parents and my brother, I had come to terms with it all. It’s okay!

Like I’ve said more than once, I believe everything happens for a reason and if I was meant to move onto the next round, if I was meant to head down to Australia, if I was meant to get the Best Job in the World, then it would have happened. But I wasn’t meant for it, not right now, maybe (probably) because something else (something better?) is out there for me, this summer, later this year, or maybe next.

Either way, being involved in this entire process has seriously been one of the best experiences of my life. I’ve met so many wonderful people both in real life and online, friendships that I hope last for a very long time, tips and tricks of the media trade, made contacts with maybe my potential future employers, and the list goes on. I started taking this blogging thing more seriously and doing it more frequently. I started video blogging and that was really fun! (I still intend to continue video blogging! ) I’ve made my face and name recognizable throughout the country (though people are likely to forget it pretty soon, LOL but still) and I’ve grown as a person. I’ve learned so much, I’ve expanded my horizons, and I could not be more excited for whatever comes next.

I’ve always been goal-oriented. I’ve always been determined. I’ve always had big plans for my life and this entire Best Job experience has only fueled that deterministic flame. I’ve always had big plans for myself and now more than ever that rings true.

Plus at least this means I’ll be around for my brother’s wedding in July. And also, I was waiting to see if I would be heading to Australia before looking into getting a new phone because my current one has a ridiculous amount of issues. Now that it looks like I won’t be heading down there (anytime soon, but certainly sometime in the future), I’m looking into getting a Blackberry Storm! And to tack onto that, I am definitely making some plans to travel this summer. I.Love.Traveling! Oh and I am also going to legit learn how to snorkel and scubadive now anyway! And I was looking into indoor bungee jumping at the West Edmonton Mall Waterpark before, as part of my Best Job campaign to show that I’m adventurous and what not (it didn’t happen though), but well, I still fully intend to do it now!

Now I leave you with these two pictures my friend Denise & I took today:

Us being pouty and (fake) angry.

Also here’s the Global Edmonton segment that ran today… I apologize for how much of a mess I look.

Also, BEST OF LUCK TO THE TOP 16 and especially those who are from the Ning forums! (Lookin atchu Juweon!)

Thanks again everyone.

Linda